Cardew looked pained. “I thought we could make it right again.”
“I believed that when you asked me to come with you. I really did. Now, I think it was just another lie. It’s obvious your patron, whoever he is, is more powerful than me. From the looks of what he’s doing outside, he could make a portal to see Sseth himself.”
The camp had grown eerily quiet, and Cardew tugged Liel to her feet and looked out the window. The mysterious assailants had vanished, leaving only the bloody remains of the mercenaries in their wake.
“If you want to live, Liel, leave,” Cardew said urgently.
“I hate you.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. But you must get away as quickly as you can.”
“Turn your back,” Liel insisted, but Cardew hesitated. “If I wanted to cut your throat, husband, I would simply let down the spell and have them do it.”
Cardew was still facing the wall when Liel slipped through the narrow gap between the floorboards and the wall. There was a hole in the tall fence that Liel used when she was in her cat form. But as an elf, she was too large to fit through the opening and escape into the jungle, and it would take too long to perform the ritual that let her change. Instead, she crawled under the floorboards of the house to wait. From her hiding place, she could see body parts strewn around the courtyard, and the smell of blood was heavy in the air.
Almost immediately, her sensitive ears heard someone approaching the colony. A lone figure strode through the half-open gate and crossed directly to the hut. It was a man, but he wore a long brown traveling cloak with a hood obscuring his face. Above her, she heard the front door swing open, and Cardew hurried onto the porch and down the steps into the yard. Liel couldn’t see the men clearly, but she had the impression they clasped hands briefly, and she heard the stranger speak.
“So that is the colony. I’m not sure it is what Queen Anais had in mind.”
“I’m sure it’s not,” Cardew said in a strained voice. Liel had been married to him long enough to know that it was fear in his voice. She inched forward on her belly to try and see who made her husband cower.
“I know where the Torque is,” Cardew told his patron.
“Considering I gave you a map of the ruins, that is no accomplishment.”
“You merely gave me a map of the jungle,” Cardew protested. “There’s a network of cities in that one quadrant. I had to search them all.”
“And is the Torque in your possession?” the man asked icily. “I see nothing but dirt on your hands.”
“I know where it is, but I can’t get to it,” Cardew said in a shaky voice.
“I’m very disappointed in you,” the man said regretfully. “You had a vast well of resources.”
“I tried. But it’s well protected,” Cardew protested.
“Yes, yes. I’m sure you made many ingenious attempts to secure one small object,” the man sneered. “However, at the moment, there is a more pressing issue. I’ve heard rumors that your wife is still here in the world of the living.”
“She’s gone now,” Cardew said.
“Gone? Gone as in rotting-in-the-ground gone? Or gone to tell her father about my operation in Chult?” “She’s gone…” Cardew began.
“In our bargain, you were to kill her when you arrived,” the man reminded Cardew. “Her blood was supposed to stain the jungle floor. Those were your choice of florid words, if I remember correctly.”
“It’s difficult to kill your own wife.”
“Yet it was your idea to begin with,” the man pointed out.
“I know, but…” Cardew stuttered.
“An idea that was crucial to our overall plan,” the man hissed. “If you couldn’t do the act yourself, you should have had one of the men do it. I’m beginning to think you are incapable of handling anything except the court maidens.”
“We cleared off the dome. We just haven’t been able to get inside,” Cardew said, the pitch of his voice rising to a whine. Liel shuddered at the thought that she had married such a man.
“Quiet, man,” Cardew’s patron said with contempt. “It’s most annoying. Do you think a King would stutter so?” “How is Ysabel?”
“Unspoiled and in the bloom of youth,” the man replied.
“Ysabel is more to me than that.”
“Women are nothing more than that. I’m going to give you one more chance, Declan. But believe me, it is your last.”
“I can’t just walk in and take it,” Cardew protested. “I told you that.”
“My personal guards will assist you, given that they have finished cleaning up your mess.”
“What are you going to do?” Cardew asked. “I have some hunting to do,” the man replied. “Hunting?” Cardew repeated.
Liel felt an invisible snare wrap around her wrist and drag her from under the house. She fought against the tether, twisting her shoulder painfully and digging her heels into the mud. But she couldn’t break the hold, and found herself at the feet of the man whose face was still in shadows under his hood.
“If you would be so kind as to bind your wife’s hands?” the man said to Cardew, throwing down a cord from his pack. Liel saw Cardew hesitate, and the man give him a thin-lipped smile.
“I won’t ask you again,” the man warned. “Either comply, or our arrangement is finished.”
Cardew moved behind Liel and tied her hands behind her back. As she felt the ropes digging into her wrists, Liel burned with contempt for Cardew, a man who believed himself to be so powerful yet was nothing but a trained monkey dancing for his reward.
“What’s going to happen to her?” Cardew asked his patron.
“She is no longer your concern. Bring me the Torque, Cardew. Don’t return to Tethyr empty-handed.”
With a final look at Liel, Cardew hurried out of the encampment, leaving his wife to whatever fate his master had planned for her.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
2 Flamerule, the Year of the Ageless One (1479 DR) Chult
They emerged from the tunnel to the edge of a barren, rocky chasm surrounded by a ring of jagged peaks. A sheer cliff of bluish-gray stone towered to the west. On the other side of the chasm, Harp could see a crevice through the rockpresumably the path that would take them to the entrance of the Domain. But there wasn’t any obvious way across the chasm. Below them, a gradual slope of loose gravel dropped off into nothingness. From where they stood, Harp couldn’t tell how far it was to the bottom of the chasm.
“That is Boneyard Canyon,” Majida told them as she and Zo started climbing down the slope. “Don’t fall.”
Crouching and using their hands to steady themselves, the two dwarves slid at an angle down the slope to the cliff of bluish-gray stone. Their descent loosened a torrent of gravel that disappeared over the edge. The dwarves skidded to a stop against the cliff and clambered onto a narrow ledge that spanned the length of the rock wall. It was apparently the only way across the chasm short of sprouting wings.
Majida and Zo looked expectantly back at Harp and his crewmates, who stood agape having watched the dwarves’ precipitous descent down the slope to the ledge. They made it look easy, but one misstep would result in a plunge into the crevice.
“That’s suicide,” Verran said in disbelief. “Jumping off the waterfall was safer than that.”
“Don’t take it slow,” Zo called from the cliff. “That just makes it harder to steer yourself to the cliff without slipping off the edge.”
“Well, we saw them do it,” Harp said resolutely. “It’s obviously possible to make it safely.”
“At least for dwarves,” Boult said.
“Then you should go first,” Kitto said to Boult.
“Ah Kitto, you’re always thinking of me,” Boult growled, crouching like Zo and Majida had and angling himself to the ledge. Kitto waited until Boult reached the ledge safely and shot Harp a mischievous grin.
